Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Tantalizing Tuesday to you all, my little gingersnaps. We have a first here at Gingersnaps in the Morning today. It's not just a Faithful Reader Profile. No... it's a Faithful Reader Profile ON MORPHINE. That's right.

Ellie Ment has been a faithful reader of Gingersnaps in the Morning for years and has turned into a personal friend of mine. She's American (from Boston) but went to school in Australia, fell in love, got a job and stayed. So she's my Bostonian friend down under.

Ellie had the recent misfortune of injuring her knee so badly it needed surgery. But thanks to modern technology (and the fact that we both have iPhones), we have been able to stay in contact via iMessage for free. That means I've been able to stay in contact with Ellie before and after her surgery and during her time in the hospital when she was chock a block full of morphine.

Her texts (and reactions to Morphine) are too good to keep to myself. And during one of her lucid moments between doses, I received her permission to share these pictures and her morphine-laced texts.

Here's Ellie's first text after her surgery.

I think she just discovered something profound here. I must find a way to test and confirm this theory.

Then she sent me a picture of her pink stained leg from the surgery. You know, the dye they put on the area before surgery.

And apparently when you get an idea on Morphine... you stick with it. And clearly Ellie had "Hunger Games" on the brain.

After surgery, Ellie got a sponge bath. I think this is my favorite text from her.

Ellie also had some other interesting experiences post-surgery on morphine...

Also, apparently Morphine and bathroom skills don't mix.

Also, Ellie learned an important lesson about bringing 5 packs of gum with her for her hospital stay.

That's right. She somehow managed to consume 50 pieces of gum that first night. And she still hasn't seen it again. O_o

But she has accomplished one important goal...

Thank you ever so much to Effie Ellie for giving us some comic gold by letting me share her morphine-laced texts. Ellie is now back home, successfully getting all her pee in the toilet, and is now weaning herself off morphine.

Until tomorrow then...

Your spit contains a painkiller that can be 6 times more powerful than morphine

Human saliva contains a natural painkiller called opiorphin. Due to its powerful painkilling ability, scientists are trying to synthesize a new natural painkiller from opiorphin. It is great, because it doesn’t have the same addicting attributes that morphine does and would work better with the body.

In a study, 1 milligram of opiorphin gave the same results as 3 milligrams of morphine did. In another study, involving rats standing on pins, they needed 6 times more morphine than opiorphin to make them oblivious to the pain.

Opiorphin works in the nerve cells of the spine. It stops the usual destruction of natural pain killing opiates in the spine called enkephalins. It is such a simple molecule, that scientists believe it’ll be possible to synthesize it and produce large quantities of it without needing to isolate it from saliva. Another approach is to find a drug that will make the body produce more opiorphin to manage pain.

Im so glad I could make people laugh. It's important to feel happy :) for what it's worth, the gum has reappeared and I've been successful at toileting myself lol. I'm so thankful for Ginger. Talking with her that night when I was alone in hospital and missing my family was the one thing that kept me going. She's an amazing friend. <3